Relating to access to an employee restroom facility in retail establishments for individuals with eligible medical conditions, and providing civil penalties

This bill provides for access to an employee restroom facility in retail establishments for individuals with eligible medical conditions. The bill creates a new Code chapter entitled the “Restroom Access Act”. The bill provides definitions for the purposes of the new Code chapter, including “eligible medical condition”, which includes Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, or any other inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, any condition requiring the use of an ostomy device, and any other medical condition that requires immediate access to a restroom facility; “employee restroom facility”, “health care professional”, and “retail establishment”. The bill requires a retail establishment that provides an employee restroom facility for its employees and does not normally make a restroom available to the public to allow a consumer to use the employee restroom facility during normal business hours if the employee restroom facility is maintained in a reasonably safe manner and certain conditions are met. The conditions include that the consumer requesting the use of the employee restroom facility suffers from an eligible medical condition and provides written documentation of the consumer’s condition; a public restroom is not immediately accessible to the consumer; a sufficient number of employees are working at the time the consumer requests use of the employee restroom facility; and the employee restroom facility is located in an area of the retail establishment that does not present an obvious risk to the health or safety of the consumer or an obvious security risk to the retail establishment. The bill does not require a retail establishment to make any physical changes or improvements to an employee restroom facility. The bill provides that if an act or omission of a retail establishment or an employee of a retail establishment, in allowing a consumer who claims to have an eligible medical condition to use the retail establishment’s employee restroom facility as required by this chapter, results in an injury to or death of the consumer or an individual other than an employee of the retail establishment who is accompanying the consumer in an area not usually accessible to the public, the retail establishment and the employee are immune from civil liability if the act or omission is not grossly negligent. An employee restroom facility provided to comply with the bill is not to be considered a public restroom for the purposes of laws or regulations that generally govern facilities available to the public, but shall instead be governed by the laws and regulations that otherwise govern the restroom facility if it were not made available to a consumer under the bill. The bill provides for the types of written documentation that are acceptable under the bill and directs the department of public health (DPH) to develop a standard electronic form that may be used by a health care professional to provide the acceptable signed statement under the bill. The bill directs DPH to adopt administrative rules to administer the bill. Under the bill, a retail establishment or an employee of a retail establishment that does not comply with the bill or refuses to provide a consumer access to an employee restroom facility as required by the bill violates the Code chapter. For a first violation, the city or county attorney shall issue a warning letter to the retail establishment and any employee of the retail establishment that denied access in violation of the Code chapter, informing the retail establishment and the employee of the retail establishment of the requirements of this Code chapter. For a second or subsequent violation, the retail establishment or employee is subject to a civil penalty of $200. The bill also provides that a person who forges, alters, improperly transfers, or knowingly possesses and uses a forged or altered statement by a health care professional or an identification card is subject to a civil penalty of $200.